


Perceptions

by mephisto96



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Canon Related, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-27
Updated: 2016-05-30
Packaged: 2018-07-10 15:14:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6990670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mephisto96/pseuds/mephisto96
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What could have happened after Aaron ordered Robert out.<br/>What is going on in their minds, and how having it out can clear the air....... a bit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Notes  
> First ever try at fanfiction, 2 or 3 chapters maybe, so bear with me. I love these boys dearly and I mean them no harm.  
> However I can’t help enjoying the angsty journey…..  
> I don’t own anything Emmerdale

“Get out of my house……….and out of my life!”, Aaron decidedly ordered Robert out.

 

Robert was stunned that Aaron was so distraught and lashing out at him, but it felt like it was at an impulse and that he was overreacting.

 

Pinning his anger on Robert’s conversation with Charity he overheard about the inheritance, Aaron found an outlet for his rage. Accusing Robert of always controlling him and manipulating him into visiting the morgue with devastating consequences for his fragile state of mind he sarcastically thanked Robert for convincing him to go in the first place so now he couldn’t un-see his dead dad. That he was creeping back into his head again. And now on coming home catching Robert red-handed striking something of a deal with Charity behind his back……..involving somehow Aaron’s inheritance. What the f*** was that about?!! After the withheld letter and everything else it was as much as he could take.

 

Robert bit back a wisecrack reply as he may have done in the past, instead said sorry, but to no avail. If anything it angered Aaron even more. So he let Aaron order him out and moved out of Aaron’s way quietly. Bad Timing. Big Mistake. Again. By now he read Aaron well enough to know any reply would have sent Aaron over the edge in God knows how deep an abyss, and the best thing he could do now was to do as he was told.

So he went.

Aaron, his emotions in overdrive after running from the morgue, was trying to get a grip on himself by taking deep breaths and exhaling more controlled until his heartrate came down a bit. Still angry though, he directed his inner turmoil at Robert in fuming that his effing arrogant boyfriend was doing it again. Now Robert had been discussing his inheritance with a wheeling-dealing cow like Charity Dingle. It was one thing after another with him and it had to stop. He realized Robert would never really change and manipulate his way in and out of everything.

Aaron sat himself down at the kitchen table and stared ahead in mild shock for a while. In his head a screaming chorus of warring thoughts fighting one another to be noticed. One thought was focused though.

He wouldn’t have accepted the money anyway he thought, it felt dead wrong, wryly snorting at the pun, thus breaking the stare.

How could he? To accept he’d have to make it count and tell himself there was something acceptable about the whole situation, or, like people would even say, good. He felt like throwing up at that.

He couldn’t get his head around how there was anything in this that was good, for God’s sake. In his mind it would make his ordeal and the legal aftermath mathematically two wrongs making a right. Or, to simplify it in a twisted way, his father would have been right in saying “Look Son, it was all for the best.” No way.

He shook his head at both the incredible absurdity of it and to dismiss the thought.

 

Never the one to be entirely admitting defeat, Robert took his time to think things over and figure out exactly what happened back there. He could very well understand Aaron’s anger in that it was about trying to manipulate or control him. But underneath he sensed fear radiating off Aaron that made him act the way he did.

Whatever the reason was he didn’t quite know yet, but he saw it was affecting Liv too, and Robert had to try and convince Aaron to do right by her. At the moment his head was too much up his own backside to take notice of what was going on with her, and Robert had to make him see sense. Things couldn’t get any worse between him and Aaron so he was going to bite the bullet and get this off his chest.

 

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapters 2 and 3 take place on the same day  
> I had to enter Charity in this. Hard as nails as she is and oblivious to all the sensitivities about she works a treat for me. Enjoy!

There was no way of escaping it seemed.   
Every which way he turned they were in in his face yapping at him. In all shapes and sizes they appeared unexpectedly, the predators that picked up his scent…… dingo’s they were, as he saw them closing in.   
He had to close his eyes to shut out the vision.

 

Upon opening them again he found himself staring at the ceiling of his own bedroom, not the frightening sight from before. The yapping was still going on though. 

What time was it? Too early surely…..  
He dragged himself out of bed to start the new day, taking a shower and get dressed.  
He saw himself in the mirror, two tired eyes staring back at him……

On his way down the yapping was still there. There was no way of escaping it seemed.   
Every which way he turned they were there, yapping. In all shapes and sizes they appeared ……….

…………..even when he looked in the mirror………even him…….

Dingles. 

Christ, this house had so many of them cramped in they started tearing chunks out of each other.

Some argument going on downstairs between two females of the pack, his mum Chas and aunt Charity.  
He couldn’t make out any of the words, but indeed it came to him as yapping, with the occasional hiss thrown in.

He sighed and with no intension of being in the way of a catfight he decided to have his breakfast at the café. 

Before he could leave though his mum came blazing out of the backroom and pushed passed him on her way up, clearly upset, chased by Charity a few steps behind.  
On a hunch Aaron quickly stepped in front of her seeking eye contact and wordlessly asked by spreading his arms.

“What?!” Charity spat at him.  
He blocked her way into the hall, ushered her back inside the backroom with one hand and pushing the door shut with the other.

“What ‘you doing?” his shoulders up in question and pointing at himself with two hands, “If you so desperately need to have a go at someone at this hour, take me, but leave my mum alone!”

To emphasize his intension to stay put he leaned back against the door and crossed his arms.

“So?” He frowned questioningly. She glared up at him and shrugged.

He grunted in frustration. “I bet this has something to do with the inheritance money, and if this is what I think it is, it’s you who’s after it!”

“How? I don’t know what you mean” she said skirting her eyes across the room looking for a way out.

So his hunch had been right then.  
Aaron intercepted her look. “Don’t bother there’s no way out. Doors ‘still locked and mum keeps t’ keys close these days. Warning you Charity, don’t want to know what you cooked up in that sick brain of yours, but I am dead serious here, leave my mum out!”

“Ok, ok!” she backed down. “I was only trying to get her to speak to you about accepting your share!”

“Why? She knows it’s not up for discussion and besides, how’s this any of your business anyway?!”

“Because after all this is over, and it may not be for a few years even, you might need the money and regret not accepting the inheritance and then it’ll be too late. I told Robert. Didn’t he tell you? I……we…are only looking out for you Aaron. Don’t throw it away because of your feelings. Think about it.”

“Well done.” he said in mock praise, “Robert could have said this, you sound like Robert, I give you that. Better still, you are two of a kind.” He was getting pretty worked up again. Robert and Charity. He had no hope in hell.

She came over and hissed under her breath up at him. ”That’s because I think he is more of a Dingle by nature than you are by blood!”

Taken aback he stared Charity down. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

”I mean – Sunshine-,” She dared closing in a bit, sensing she had him on the back foot, “that in as much I appreciate what you have been going through lately, and that you’re hurt an’ all that, mollycoddling your pain and disappointment is pretty useless, it’s not loving you back. Robert gets that.” 

Seeing Aaron’s shocked face she toned down a bit and created some distance before carrying on,

”What I’m saying is you have to kick yourself into gear again at some point. So why not now? You” -she pricked her index finger in his chest-”want to be a Dingle? So, this is The Dingle Way. At the moment I see Robert that’s doing what you’re supposed to be doing: Getting on with it!” 

And to ram the message home, 

“Don’t lose him, you’re not even half a Dingle without him.”

Suddenly fed up he pushed himself off the door.

”Have you quite finished? I think we’re done here!” He yanked the door open and hurried outside.

“Fine, run off why don’t you!” Charity muttered.

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robert from the outside looking in.  
> It is not being left out, there is a difference

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel truly honoured by all the Kudos!

He was on a crusade, clad in his white tunic with its big red cross a symbol of his conquest, his shiny white mount eager to carry him into battle. A fresh breeze cooling his frame uncomfortably smothered in damp leather and chainmail attire. His helmet unforgivingly blocking his view and the sheer weight resulting in a splitting headache, oh well….  
The sound of trumpets signaling to gather for the fight, he raised his arm to order the charge……

Woken up by a sudden pain when his hand banged onto the car roof, ears ringing from what sounded like a siren, disoriented he lifted his face from the car horn button on the steering wheel it had been resting on. Through the open car window a chill blew in, and from his wet coat sleeve he gathered it must have been raining too. On sitting up he caught a glimpse of himself in the rear view mirror, tousled blond hair and a distinct round mark just below his left cheekbone visible. ‘Robert the Bruised’ he thought sourly. Great.

A breakfast show playing on the radio irritably spewed out its nonsense and Robert turned it off. 

He couldn't even shake his head to clear it for the pain it caused, so he sat staring out of the windscreen hazily with his headache hammering, trying to get some focus back. 

He wondered why he was sat in his car outside the village at a layby up in the hills. He remembered going for a spin to clear his head and think about what happened yesterday, the car radio playing, tuned in on some music channel. This usually calmed him down, but he found himself too distracted to drive properly so in the dark he parked up here and looked down on Emmerdale and its constellation of lit windows. Always the same view from up here, he felt a pull towards it. And that wasn’t even down to Aaron. This view alone, it somehow anchored him down. He felt it must have hypnotized him into sleep or something for he apparently logged off.

Time to get a move on.

Where exactly did things derail this time?  
Aaron and his sister. He had some hair splitting to look forward to, and that was not possible with a head thumping like this. He resolved to get himself back to Keeper’s for a shower and a shave first, and take something for his aching head.

During his bathroom session, which to his relief he didn’t have to share with anyone today, he let yesterday’s events pass in review.

Breakfast had been a relative lull in the storm still raging around them. Although there had been a bit of an onerous discussion going on following Robert’s suggestion to Aaron to go see his father in the morgue, all seemed fine ....sort of.

Then suddenly a change in atmosphere from receiving a call that Gordon left a will.  
Not so much Aaron’s instinctive reaction, that wasn’t all that surprising, but more Liv’s instant pick up on it.  
Robert noticed a subtle change in the split second she flitted her eyes over Aaron’s face and mirrored his behaviour.

What Aaron did, she did too. Why? In itself that should be ok given they behaved alike anyway. In Aaron he found it annoying most of the time and endearing the rest. To Robert Liv was Aaron’s Mini Me, and he had a hard time not to show his amusement.  
She was alright. 

Thinking back, her reaction now concerned him. She should have been able to make a decision by herself and feel free to accept the inheritance if she wanted to. Not to feel pressured into refusing for fear of upsetting her brother. Their relationship was still fragile and however far she dared to try Aaron’s patience, he radiated anything Gordon-related was off limits or his fuse would go.  
Robert had seen hurt and disappointment reflected in her eyes. She had mumbled that she had to go to school and scooted out.

Aaron didn't notice she was reaching out to him, he was turning into himself and consequently she must have felt ignored or left out. 

Robert replayed the scene over and over in his mind.  
He could now see he may have overseen the signs of Aaron not really coping, with this traincrash as a result.  
There was nothing for it though.

Aaron certainly had every right to feel the way he did, but he had to act responsibly and, for want of a better word, wisely towards his kid sister. Robert felt it was his place, more than anyone else’s, to have this out with Aaron, regardless of any consequences for himself, again things between them couldn’t get any worse could they? 

So, If not for Aaron, he might as well step up for Liv.

What with the conversation with Charity and the following row, on top of what happened yesterday morning it was now clear to Robert how he had to go about what he had to say.

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The tunic is referring to Robert's chest with the bullet scar.  
> The white steed of course symbols the white Audi  
> It's a dream, so yeah I couldn't resist.....
> 
> And sorry to everyone enjoying or making breakfast radio about the mean remark, I needed the car electrics 'on' in order to have the car horn working when he woke up.
> 
> To wrap it up there will be one more chapter out hopefully before tonight's episode


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> virtually moving pieces about on a chess board to get them in place to play the end game.
> 
> An updated note at the end is all.....

Aaron was at the café sipping his morning tea. Too restless to even think of anything to eat, he instead texted his mum.

“You ok?”

“Ok. You?”

“Fine thnx”

Not getting a text back he put his phone away but it rang. Mum.

“Yeah mum”

“Hi love, where are you?”

“At t’ café, why?”

“I’m sat here with two hungry kids about to get to school, who, as I may point out are not mine, a missing mother, an empty fridge and no time or cash to do anything about it” ,she summed up.

“What do you want me to do about it, then?”

“Aww, could you be a treasure and get Bob to have three plates of scrambled eggs on toast ready in about ten? We’re coming over.” 

“Oh…. right” 

“And Aaron?”

“Yeah mum?” 

“Don’t run off, I need a word” 

“Yeah. Ok. Ta”

He went over to the counter to get the order in and pay meanwhile a little embarrassed with himself he had to admit that he hadn’t thought of the youngsters at all this morning, still not quite used to having to look after a kid, let alone two because Noah was practically neglected by Charity, and usually trying to be invisible but always around.  
Of being a pa……..he shivered and stopped midsentence when the door opened and in they came.

His mum with her version of hands-on parenting, “Come on, sit yourselves down, I’ll get you something to drink. You will have all of 5 minutes to get your breakfast down ya, so hurry up please!”

She joined Aaron at the counter looking up at him smiling at his bemused expression

“What?” He scowled……

“Nothing” she said cheerfully……

Bob appeared, “O, hi, Chas.”  
“Eh, yeah. Morning Bob, two orange juice and a coff…..” Aaron nudged her and nodded, “….two... coffees please.”

“Coming up, take a seat, I’ll bring it over to you, and the 3 scrambled eggs for you as well was it?”

“Thanks Bob.”

I didn’t even take 5 minutes to wolf their breakfasts down, most of it was going to serve as a packed brunch by the looks of it. Hastily Liv and Noah wrapped their eggy toasts into a handful of paper napkins and scooted off outside.

Aaron and his mum eventually shared the remaining plate and drank their coffees.

“Aaron,” his mum started awkwardly, “about this morning…” As she was about to continue she lost her son’s attention for he was staring at the door. 

“Not here mum, we have to go, come on!” 

Following his gaze she spotted Charity. 

He made himself look busy gathering his stuff so as to ignore his aunt and pressed his mother with a nod to the door. 

“Mum. Now!” 

Too late. Charity spotted them and in passing on her way to the counter asked, “Robert not with you? I…..” 

Aaron cut her off and said “Busy, so……” and shook his head no, pointing at the door and grabbing his mum by the sleeve of her coat.

“Oi, Aaron!” she protested.

“Come on, let’s go home.” 

 

Sat at the kitchen table in the backroom Chas finally tried to apologize to Aaron for what happened that morning with Charity. 

“Love, I’m sorry you were dragged into this row with Charity, sometimes she’s like a bullterrier clinging onto anything she can get her teeth into, and I wasn’t strong enough to fight her.”

“Mum, really, it’s fine, I’m fine. She’s dead annoying I know, but she didn’t hurt me. For the most part she’s pretty predictable, everything comes down to money with her. So…….” Not knowing what else to say he opened his hands and shrugged.

What he didn’t say was that concerning Robert Charity might have a point……..

All too soon their peace was shattered again when Robert came storming in and Aaron immediately was at loggerheads with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrap this up now.  
> Robert has had his say, Aaron listens and I'm reasonably happy with how it's going. 
> 
> I'm thrilled with the piece by HannahficRobRon - The Funeral. I have a similar feeling about Robert and Liv and think it is a fitting follow up for this story. I love the interaction between them. It gave me an idea for the future. So thanks.
> 
> \---------------------
> 
> Happily surprised every time I get new kudos for such an old piece. Thanks to all of you!


End file.
